Yeah. Apparently the SZC company that made the old Hobbit cartoons threw a copyright hissy fit at Adagio for blends using Tolkien terms. So Adagio pulled all the blends until it’s all resolved….which it’s still up in the air as far as I know.

From their twitter – “We received a letter from SZC asking us to remove the teas. Decided that while we review options, we’d comply with their request.” (@AdagioTeas)

Which is incredibly irritating since the SZC company isn’t actually a part of the Tolkien estate. They just made the stupid cartoons years and years ago.

I know Aun-Juli has been re-releasing her Tolkien blends. Adagio is apparently working with her and approving re-releases of her teas because the terms she named many of her teas aren’t actually Tolkien specific but general words that exist outside Tolkien. XD
I’m not sure if Cara McGee has re-released anything under different names or not though.

It’s sometimes a name or a reference to a character or term from a particular fandom that a blender on Adagio is using. I wouldn’t particularly call that a copyright violation, especially if, in most of the Tolkien blend cases, a person is using a term that existed before and outside of the Tolkien works.
And I call it a hissy fit because, as far as I know, none of the other companies that people reference on Adagio has done something like this because I would think it’s good advertising business for their show/book/whatever.
Personally, I have a feeling that this company is hoping to get some kind of money kickback if they let Adagio ‘use’ whatever they’re claiming as copyright. If not then they’re apparently just being jerks about it.

Well, the Tolkien sampler that they had up was actually of Aun-Juli’s teas, so you may be able to still get some of them depending on what she’s re-released. They’re under the ‘Tales and Tea Leaves’ heading on the blends page. Also on the ‘Most Popular’ selection on the main blends page. ^^